Henry Ford
In 1891, Henry Ford was hired on the position of an engineer in the Edison Illuminating Company. Two years later, due to his numerous talents, Henry got a promotion and became a chief engineer. He had an idea to create a horseless carriage; later, he realized his plans and built the first model in 1896. Ford met with Edison and presented him the Ford Quadricycle; Edison liked the idea of this model and encouraged Ford to build a new model that would be improved and better.
Ford continued to develop car manufacture, and in 1903, he established the Ford Motor Company which posted one hundred percent gains during several next years. Nevertheless, Ford became famous for his revolutionary vision; he hired high-qualified workers who earned a steady wage. In this way, he introduced a new method that kept workers loyal to the company who worked fast and on a high level of quality. By the end of 1918, Ford produced the half of all cars in America that were very easy in use and not very expensive.
The manufacture of cars in the 1990s was a challenging task, because it was something radical, new, and unusual. Moreover, it required quite a big amount of capital and a well-organized business structure. Besides, it also included all numerous parts that were necessary for production. When Ford faced these tasks, he decided to find a businessman who could support him in his ideas. Henry Ford quickly found such a businessman; it was William H. Murphy, a successful businessman in Detroit. The company was called the Detroit Automobile Company, and the directors of the board had high hopes. However, soon, the problems arose; the car that was designed by Ford needed to be reworked and it parts from different places. Some parts were deficient, while others were too heavy. Ford tried to improve the design of the car to make it closer to what he could call an ideal one, but this task required time, and Murphy started losing his faith in Ford. After a year and a half, the board of directors decided to dissolve the company; nobody believed in Ford anymore.
Nevertheless, Ford did not give up; he analyzed his failure and came to a conclusion that he paid too much attention to satisfy the consumer’s needs. Thus, he decided to start again, but to make a car lighter and smaller. Ford asked Murphy to help him and to give another chance. Murphy still believed that Ford was a real genius and agreed; they created a new company that was called the Henry Ford Company. From the very beginning, Murphy put pressure on Ford and demanded to introduce a new car for a production to avoid the repetition of the scenario with the first company. Ford was angry, because he could not stand the interference from people who did not know how to design cars and did not have any ideas about the standards that Ford tried to include in his vehicle. However, Murphy did not want to be outsider and tried to supervise the process.
The decision of Murphy was the final nail in the coffin for Ford; less than in a year, he left the company. This time, Ford decided to break with Murphy finally, but such unsuccessful beginning of the automobile manufacture career had negative consequences for him (Jensen, 2013). Nobody wanted to work with Ford, because he blew his two chances; thus no businessmen wanted to make a company with Henry Ford. This time, Ford realized his main failure which was related to people who financed the manufacture of cars. These businessmen were rich people who wanted to see the results as fast as possible, and they cared very little about Ford’s vision or ideas. They always meddled into the production and dictated their own rules of game which did not match with Ford’s plans.
According to the conclusion that Ford made after his second failure, he decide to find a partner who would not meddle into the production and gave him the free will of actions. This task seemed impossible especially if one took into the consideration two previous failures of Ford; however, he found such man after two months of searching. Despite the fact that such manner of running the business was absolutely strange to the American businessmen and even too bureaucratic, Alexander Malcomson, a Scottish emigrant, agreed to help Ford. Malcomson was a risk taker; perhaps it was the main reason why he believed in Ford when everybody has already lost their faith in him. Moreover, he gave Fort something more than money, he let Ford to establish his own form of organization and create business model that would be suitable for him. Moreover, he gave a word not to meddle into the production so that Ford could start the designing of an assembly plant which realized his ideas of a new model of car. Ford wanted to create a model of a car that would be lighter, simpler, and more durable; this car could be created due to the assembly plant which speeded the level of production.
When the assembly plat was ready, Ford hired a high qualified team of workers that produced fifteen cars a day; it was very high number for that time. Ford controlled every aspect of the production; it was really his car including even the smallest details. Moreover, he worked together with his workers on the assembly line; this fact tells much about his desire to create a car that could satisfy his ideas. Ford started producing cheap A model cars which brought prospering to the company. In 1904, the company expanded its manufacture, and soon it became one of the dew companies which survived in the early era of machine building production and became a giant in its designing.
Henry Ford played a significant role not only in the history of the United States, but also in the history of the whole world. He was the first who invented the method of mass production of the cars which made them cheaper so that an average citizen could buy a car. One of the biggest benefits of a car for ordinary people was that they could spend less time getting to the job, and they also could drive anywhere anytime. People became independent from transit transports or bikes that were not as fast as cars.
Henry Ford had a personal motto “Help the others”; this motto is reflected in his management style. He believed that a good attitude towards employees would result in a better production; he tried to give people opportunities to help themselves rather than provide charity. Henry Ford implemented the following innovations:
- He established a five-dollar wage that was twice more that the industry standard for such job. Ford believed that the company should share its profit with the workers who helped to gain it.
- He introduced policies that gave chance for people with the mental or physical disorder to work in the company.
- The major part of his labor force were emigrants; thus, Ford established the English Language School to improve the language skills of his workers.
Henry Ford did not only make a breakthrough in the automobile industry, he gave a life to a new era and changed the life of the world as it became faster and more comfortable. The invasion of inexpensive cars gave people an opportunity to save their time; as a result, it brought the economy of the world to a new level, because now people did not need to waste much time to get to job, even big distances could be overcome in short period of time. However, the main achievement of Ford is the development of the assembly line which started to be used not only in the car building, but also in other spheres of production.
Henry Ford was a farmer boy who has overcome many difficulties until he succeeded. On his way, he had made many failures but continued to move and believe in his ideas. He said that failure is an opportunity to start everything again, but this time more intelligently. Thus, Henry Ford is not only a significant person in the world history, because he has achieved success; he is a person who rose after the failure and never gave up.
Комментарии
Отправить комментарий